Nandini Ramanujam to co-chair Principal’s Task Force on Respect and Inclusion in Campus Life

News

Professor Nandini Ramanujam, Executive Director of the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, was recently appointed co-chair of the Principal’s Task Force on Respect and Inclusion in Campus Life, alongside with the Dean of the Faculty of Science, Bruce Lennox. The Task Force is mandated to “recommend a set of concrete measures by which the University may ensure the full and effective operationalization of its core principles across all University activities, but with particular consideration paid to student life at McGill.”

According to Professor Ramanujam, the Task Force should be looked at “as something that is neither the beginning nor the end… At the Faculty of Law [for example], we’ve been talking a great deal, for a long time, about safe spaces and inclusive spaces and respectful spaces. There have been many conversations between students, faculty, and administration. [The University] has had task forces before about freedom of assembly and expression. This is part of a continuous process.”

Convened at the start of November, the Task Force has now launched a survey of students, faculty, and staff which aims to determine how existing structures help or hinder free expression, respect and inclusion. It will conduct wide-ranging consultations on the downtown and Macdonald campuses through January. The Principal will receive the group’s final report and recommendations by April 27.